Premier Greg Selinger has announced more future export sales of Manitoba Hydro's electricity to American utilities. His spin reminds me of the old adage: When something seems too good to be true, watch out! With his latest announcement, the line between the NDP...
Energy
British Columbians Should Note Success Stories of Offshore Oil Development
For more than 40 years, the government has prohibited offshore oil exploration in BC. Other regions have benefitted enormously by allowing and encouraging such development. Newfoundland and Labrador has gone from being a “have-not” to a prosperous province, thanks in...
Hydro’s ownership of Centra Gas remains conflicted
Natural gas is in the news. Price increases due to cold weather; the increasing use of gas for electricity generation; a spectacular explosion of a portion of TransCanada's pipeline south of Winnipeg; a call by Pembina Valley for natural gas service for its...
When the heavens don’t open
In the midst of a multi-year drought, California could use a few feet and more of that high drift of snow that now blocks your view as you approach an intersection. With a population of 38 million and a huge agricultural industry requiring massive amounts of water...
Featured News
The Kamloops Graves
“Have we reached the ultimate stage of absurdity, where some people are held liable for things that happened before they were born, while others are not held responsible for things they are themselves doing today?” - Thomas Sowell Canadians reacted with horror to the...
Beware a Pretty Face or Tasty Drink
How much poison would you willingly put on your skin or ingest? If the answer is zero, you might have to make some changes. We may assume our foods, drinks and cosmetics are safe because regulators allowed them. Unfortunately, that may not always be the case....
Smart Meters in Apartments Inspire Conservation
A new smart meter from Triacta forces tenants to become responsible energy users because it records the amount of electricity a consumer is using at a given time.
Britain will Burn Elephant Grass
Britain’s first major power station fuelled by elephant grass
Kyoto Plan Criticized for Huge Costs
The current grid structure in Canada is mostly north-south since most of the population lives near the U.S. border. North-south transmission connections ensure the availability of imports from the United States, and give provinces the chance to export excess power to neighbouring U.S. states
Flying Windmills
The next great energy technology may well be involve implausible-sounding machines called Flying Electric Generators, windmills 30,000 feet high and tethered to the ground by power lines. These windmills would capture the plentiful power in the strong, steady winds that blow in the jet stream
Higher Electricity Pricing Needed
Provincial and territorial governments need to encourage conservation by raising prices to eliminate the current gaps that persist between what it costs to produce electricity and what Canadians are charged for it
Can Quebeckers still afford their economic development model?
The solution may lie, as it did 40 years ago, with Hydro-Québec. Mr. Fortin advocates steady increases in domestic electricity prices to spur conservation at home and free up energy surpluses for the lucrative export market. For former Liberal minister Claude Castonguay, Quebec Inc.’s eminence grise, the future might lie in Hydro-Québec’s partial privatization. The $20-billion to $25-billion the government could pocket by selling a third of the utility would seriously alleviate Quebec’s debt burden.
Ontarians to pay $1B for hydro meters
A new smart-meter initiative will make Ontario the first North American jurisdiction to record residential power consumption data on an hourly basis; critics argue the meters will allow the government to blame higher electricity bills on consumers who do not conserve aggressively.
Tom Adams on Conawapa
Energy think tanker Tom Adams on Manitoba’s Conawapa dam project.
Demand-Response Programs Save Millions
Recent studies show that electricity demand-response programs have saved customers millions of dollars and could save billions more. The programs use price incentives to encourage consumers to use less power at times of peak demand, thereby increasing the reliability of the power grid.